Oops! I may be in trouble. I just got off the phone with my son, who was calling from Phnom Penh, Cambodia, to inquire about whether my wife and I were having trouble getting around in Wallingford due the snow and ice conditions that he had read about on his Blackberry. He just happened to be standing outside the Memorial Museum that contains the artifacts associated with the atrocities perpetrated by the Khmer Rouge, and we reminisced over the way things have changed over time, and the many ways they have remained the same.

In a parallel vein, I reminded him of when he was an infant, and obviously incapable of absorbing or sharing the visual impact that we felt as we entered the grounds of Dachau, the WW2 death camp outside Munich, and how geopolitics has a way of repeating itself. Laughing, I joked (at least, I thought it was a joke) that our conversation might be recorded or documented somehow, and we might be placed on a watch-list due to our apparent fixation with wartime atrocity museums (regardless of the fact that both visitations occurred over a span of fifty years). And, you know, I don’t really care if someone or some agency was monitoring this call. It was just nice to know that he was concerned enough about his Mom and Dad to call.

Lawrence Singer, Wallingford

Meriden awakes!

Editor:

It’s so refreshing to learn that Mike Rohde is no longer Meriden’s mayor. Finally, the citizens have awakened! But there is way more to go. Other paid public department heads need to be replaced. Why doesn’t the city hire a more diversified workforce in public works? Mayor Manny Santos has his hands full with the elite Democrats in Meriden. They have drained the city, and will continue to drain it. But, hey — I live in Hudson, Fla. now. (By the way, I think that the worst thing the city did was to take Mark Zebora out of running Public Works — he is the only guy who has a clue; he is a “people person.”)

Tom Varrato, Hudson, Fla.

Public guardian

Editor:

The Wallingford Republican pack controls the Town Council once again, and there appears to be some controversy surrounding who will serve as the Town Council vice-chairperson (R-J, 12-19). Will it be a lap dog or a pit bull? The lap dog appears to have the support of fellow councilors and the pit bull has the support of the voting public. “Mending one’s ways” appears the course of action for vice-chair consideration, if you are a pit bull. Evidently the pit bull’s ways have hit a resonant key with Wallingford’s voting public since he garnered the highest vote count. The lap dog finished somewhere else in the pack. It would seem to this writer that voter tallies deserve recognition in this particular vice-chair selection. As a dog owner, I know the lap dog and the pit bull are excellent canine companions at home, but on a council of elected officials the role of public guardian must be respected.